Instrumental music is filled with passage work based on scales and arpeggios. For this reason, good teachers encourage their students to develop their technical facility by learning to play scales and arpeggios in every key, slurred, played legato and played detached. We have listed all the common scales and arpeggios below and we make suggestions for phrasing them so that they become 'second nature'.

On the recorder the easiest scale is that of the key note on your recorder - on the descant/soprano recorder this scale is C major. As a general guide, scales become more difficult the greater the number of sharps or flats in their key signatures.

NOTES: - Scales and arpeggios feature in most practical instrumental examinations. You should be aware that each examining board sets its own requirements for the range and order of notes and you must refer to the board's own publications to find out exactly what these are.